It's one thing for someone to confess fault and acknowledge others have the right to render a moral judgment on him. The contrite man may offer reasons why they should be merciful in their judgments, but he'll acknowledge that others do have the right to judge him by his actions.

Elliot Spitzer doesn't concede you have the right to judge him for breaking the law while the chief law enforcement officer of a state, or of going after some mob-connected prostitution rings and yet not others.

Asked by Mika Brzezinski about the various tabloid headlines bashing his past indiscretions, Spitzer replied: “I am mystified by the attention and the focus on that.”

Spitzer really revealed his thinking, however, in a back and forth with Time’s Mark Halperin.

“There is a difference between public and private lives,” Spitzer said in response to a question about whether lying to the public was disqualifying for a public official. “There is a divide there that is something we do want to think about at a certain point and time.” We all know politicians dissemble all the time about negotiations on substantive issues and probably on personal issues as well.” [Funky logic-breaking quotation marks in original.]

Later, Spitzer added: “I lied about personal sexual activity.”

Chris Cilliza concludes Spitzer is merely sorry he got caught, which is entirely different from being contrite. A contrite man doesn't constantly argue that what he did wasn't all that bad and Everyone Does It and Why Don't You Just Mind Your Own.